


Holding Up the Stars

by LuluRequests (EntameWitchLulu)



Series: Arc of Space [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Child Abuse, Human Experimentation, M/M, Military, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 09:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19248826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu/pseuds/LuluRequests
Summary: When Admiral Akaba Reiji of the interstellar imperial navy is charged to hunt down a defected soldier who has stolen military technology, he knows there’s much more to the story than he’s being told -- especially since the soldier in question is one Sakaki Yuya, whom he has met before.





	Holding Up the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [czoedy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/czoedy/gifts).



“We're coming up on the rogue speeder. Permission to fire?”

Selena's voice tenses, crackles on the edges. But Reiji holds up his hand, eyes fixed on the monitor.

“Negative, Lieutenant. Hold your fire.”

He can feel the surprised gazes burning into the back of his head from the rest of his crew, but he does not deign to meet them. His eyes are reserved for the old, decommissioned imperial ship they're pursuing. It swings back and forth erratically, an evasive maneuver to attempt to shake off any tractor beams that might attempt to snatch it into the imperial ship. It looks like it's about to shake itself apart against the black, starry sky.

“Sir,” Tsukikage says, his voice low and even, not a hint of distress or disobedience in it. “Our orders are to...”

“I know what our orders are, Captain. Please remember yours.”

Tsukikage falls silent. A faint hum of unease seems to encase the control center, despite the fact that no one is speaking. No one knows why Reiji is hesitating. He has never hesitated before, after all.

Reiji's fingers drum lightly against the smaller screen at his side, attached to his arm rest, where the orders for their mission glow. A simple directive:  _ Soldier gone rogue. Stolen sensitive military tech and data. Terminate on sight. _

The image, and the name that glows beneath it, indicate the rogue soldier as Sakaki Yuya.

Reiji tenses his jaw.

_ What are you  _ doing _ , Sakaki _ ?

* * *

It’s the sound of giggling that attracts his attention — that’s not a sound that he’s used to hearing aboard his ship.  He pauses at a window, eyes wandering automatically out at the inky blackness of the vacuum of space just beyond it, as he tries to determine which direction the sound is coming from.

It’s two doors down, in one of the galleys.  He makes his way towards it, knocking lightly on the door before entering.  The giggles splutter a bit, as though people are trying to stop laughing before he lets himself in — this attempt fails, as the occupants are still laughing when he opens the door.

The most surprising thing about the room is Selena — she’s practically bent over the table laughing.  Reiji blinks. He’s never seen her laugh like this before — she’s always so tense and strict. Sawatari looks reluctant as he laughs, too, but his cheeks are red.

The third member of the table, however, Reiji doesn’t know.  He’s probably a few years younger than Reiji — a fresh recruit, straight from the Academy, no doubt.  His cheeks are round and pink with his laughter, his whole face and body alight with the joy that seems to pour out of it.  His shaggy green and red hair is only barely contained by his military hat, red eyes alight with mirth. Those eyes meet Reiji’s as the door opens, and rather than shoot to his feet and stand at attention, the way that Selena and Sawatari scramble to do as they leap to their feet, he only smiles and raises a hand in greeting.

“Oh!  Good morning!” he says.  “Sorry, were we being too loud?”

The young man suddenly notices Selena and Sawatari standing up at parade rest, and a light pink flush overtakes him.  His eyes fall on the bars on Reiji’s pocket, the ones that indicate him as the commander of this fleet. The young man immediately shoots up to his feet and salutes.

“Oh!!” he says.  “Sorry, sir! Didn’t realize who you were.”

Reiji waves it off, indicating to them that they may sit back down.

“It’s fine.  I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”  Reiji tilts his head at the young man. The young man smiles back, making another salute — this one seeming more playful than the last.

“Yuya!  Sakaki Yuya,” he says.  “You must be the commander, Akaba Reiji.”

Reiji nods, surprised to find a small smile on his own lips — something about Yuya’s cheer is infectious.  He’s not used to soldiers being so...happy.

“An excellent deduction.  And you must have just joined our fleet.”

Yuya shakes his head.

“Actually, I’m with the contingent going in,” he says.  “We’re riding along with you to get to the tech docks.”

Ah, of course.  Reiji nods.

“Well, I welcome you aboard, then, Private Sakaki.”

“Thank you, sir!”

Reiji starts to turn, but then hesitates.  He glances back at the three of them.

“If I might ask...what was so funny, earlier?”

Selena goes bright red, Sawatari leans his head forward, and Yuya’s entire face lights up with glee.  Selena starts waving her hand at him, as though trying to get him to stop without Reiji noticing, but Yuya doesn’t look at her.  Instead, he reaches for the pair of chopsticks from their finished meal on the table, and before Reiji knows exactly what he’s doing, Yuya sticks them both on top of his head like a pair of antennae, and wiggles them up and down.

“Listen up, idiots,” he says, in a  _ perfect  _ imitation of Lieutenant Sanders, one of the fleet instructors at the Academy — Reiji remembers him from his own days in school.  “I will only say this once!!”

Selena can’t contain herself.  She collapses with muffled giggles, face pressed into the table, and Sawatari is looking away with a hand crunched over his mouth and shaking from the effort of keeping the laughter inside.

Reiji blinks for a moment, his mouth slightly open.  For a second, he thinks of how absolutely disrespectful this is, and that Yuya should know better than to make fun of his superiors.

But it sounds  _ just like  _ him, and the chopsticks look just like those ridiculous little tufts of hair on the old soldier’s head that would bounce when he yelled, and it’s like for a moment, Reiji’s been transported back in time to morning drills and daily lessons.

And he can’t help it.  A smile cracks over his face.  A small snort escapes his lips — one that gets Sawatari’s and Selena’s eyes both snapping up to him with shock.  Reiji covers his mouth with one hand, but Yuya’s already seen the smile and heard the laugh, and he grins so hugely that it’s like his face might split it half.

Reiji coughs to disguise the laugh.

“Amusing,” he says.  “Do be careful, though — not everyone may have the same sense of humor as you.”

“Will do, sir,” Yuya says, with yet another playful salute.

* * *

Yuya slaps at the controls, trying to breathe. The imperial ship is gaining on him. He's not sure which one, but it doesn't matter. All of them will shoot him down if given the slightest chance. He chokes on his own air as he wrenches the controls back and forth. His ship is old – not at all like the top of the line imperial ship on his tail. His shields might hold for a single blast, and he doesn't have any hyperspace capabilities.

_ We might be able to escape if... _

“No,” Yuya says aloud to the voice in his head. “Absolutely not.”

He keeps his eyes on the radar as he tries to maneuver the ship. He knows what he's done. He knows what the military will do. They'll shoot him down without asking questions. That's why he has to do whatever he can to be a difficult target. He wrenches the controls wildly again – he can almost hear his flight instructor scolding him, and a wry grin splits over his face. Thinking about school now? He must be really losing it.

He exhales, and inhales again, holding it. He tilts the controls downward suddenly, spinning them forward. They start to tip upside down – he's going to go for it. He's going to loop underneath the ship, zoom in the other direction, and count on it being too slow to turn around after him –

The ship yanks to a stop so abruptly that he crashes against the console, and it sparks. He yanks at the controls, but they don't respond – every screen has gone a blank, pulsing teal.

His heart rises into his throat, and he reaches for his blaster. Tractor beam. He's been snatched, rather than shot. What...who's on that ship?

* * *

It's quiet in the observation deck. It reminds Yuya of home, a little. Home before the bombs, and the fires. From here, in the darkness, lit only by the glow of the planet far below them in the view of the bay window, he can pretend once again that he's in a grove of glowing willows, the darkness of the sacred cave surrounding him and broken only by the waving back and forth of the willows long, glowing branches as they trace across the water's surface. None of the other ensigns have ever joined him out here. They're all busy back in the mess hall, laughing, drinking, and playing cards, making the most of their time after school has ended and before work begins.

That's why he's surprised when he hears a soft footstep scuff against the metal floor. He's even more surprised to see Admiral Akaba being the owner of the footsteps.

“Oh,” Yuya says, standing up straight with his plastic cup of tea in one hand, awkwardly saluting with the other. “Hello, admiral. Sorry, am I interrupting?”

“Not at all,” Akaba says in that soft voice of his. “I hope I wasn't interrupting you.”

Yuya shakes his head, and realizes that he's probably breaking a lot of protocol rules right now by not saluting properly. But there's nowhere to put his tea, and well, Akaba  _ did _ laugh at his jokes earlier. Maybe he'll let him off easy.

To his relief, Akaba does not make a mention of Yuya's unbuttoned jacket or his sloppy salute. He simply joins him at the railing, looking down at the planet below.

“Are you ready to disembark tomorrow?” he asks, and his voice is gentle enough to not feel as though it's breaking the silence.

Yuya bites his lip as he considers the question, swirling his tea around in his cup.

“I think so,” he says. “I've never been this far away from home before, actually. It's weird.”

Akaba glances at him through his glasses for a moment, dark violet eyes looking black in the light.

“You're from the Outer Rings, correct?”

Yuya's lips part, and his fingers almost slacken on his tea. And then he brightens.

“Yes!” he says. “You can tell?”

Akaba nods, leaning his elbows forward on the railing.

“I have never been,” he says. “But I have always wanted to.”

This gets Yuya's eyes to widen.

“What? Really? You?” he says, and then realizes how rude that sounds. “Sorry, sir.”

Akaba actually cracks a small, soft smile, and it seems to make him glow a little. It brings a faint, strange warmth to Yuya's cheeks.

“Is that so surprising?”

Yuya ducks his head towards his tea, holding it in both hands. The light of the planet reflecting its double suns makes the edges of his tea glow.

“To be perfectly fair, sir, it seems a lot of people don't like the Outer Rings very much,” he says.

That's an understatement. He's heard the things his fellow ensigns have said about the Outer Rings – dirty, primitive places, backwards worlds that still believe in dragons and worship trees. Worlds that deserved what they got during the Struggle. His fingers tighten into his cup.

“I hope no one on my crew has said such things to you,” Akaba says.

“Oh, no, definitely not,” Yuya says, looking up and waving one hand. “Your crew is – they've all been very good to us, sir.”

Akaba smiles slightly again.

“I'm glad to hear it.”

He turns his gaze back to the planet for a moment, and then leans back, standing straight again.

“I've also heard many things about the Outer Rings,” he says. “But mostly about how beautiful they are.”

He glances at Yuya out of the corner of his eye.

“I know there was great struggle there but...from the holo-photos I've seen of the place, I can't imagine ever wanting to leave.”

The soft kindness in Akaba's voice actually makes Yuya's heart swell. He smiles.

“I hope you can see it one day,” he says.

Akaba nods softly, and then looks back to the planet. Before he walks away, however, he turns to Yuya again.

“I hope it doesn't come as too forward, but...why  _ did _ you leave, Sakaki? Why did you join the military? I mean no offense, but...you don't seem of the nature for it.”

It's nothing Yuya hasn't heard before, so he doesn't take offense. It's actually endearing, the sort of gentle curiosity in Akaba's voice.

“You obviously know about the Struggle,” Yuya says, leaning back against the railing, his back to the planet. “Everyone does.”

Akaba only nods, and Yuya keeps going.

“I was right there. At the invasion point, I mean. In Maiami.”

The words make Akaba's face pale, and he swears softly.

“You're lucky to be alive.”

Yuya nods. He feels himself getting distant, like he always does, when he talks about it.

“My mom, my best friend, and her dad got out because my dad covered us. But he didn't make it out after us.”

He squeezes his tea cup so tightly that it squishes beneath his fingers, and tea spurts out of it and onto his hands. But he's so far away now that he doesn't notice. For a moment, his mind is full of nothing but the sound of bombs, and screaming.

“But we still wouldn't have made it out,” he says. “On the other end of our escape route, they'd formed a blockade to catch fleeing refugees. We wouldn't have escaped if...if not for...well, for her.”

He can still remember the moment, as clear as though it's happening in front of him. Clinging to his mother's shirt as she screamed and yelled, waving a broken blaster in an attempt to scare off the firing squad that bore down on them. And then...her. Just one, single person, running headlong to intercept the blasters from striking him and his family, armed with only a single shield and a single energy lance. He remembered the way her red-brown hair, tied into twin tails, had spilled out from beneath her hat as it went flying off her head. Her flashing eyes, and the determined scream that spilled from her lips as she struck down the first line, cutting through lasers, breaking apart blasters before their ammo could strike the civilians behind her.

Others had streamed after her, then, people in gray uniforms quickly surrounding Yuya and his family with their shields raised while others advanced on the blockade, breaking it down. And somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, Yuya could still see her – the woman with the red-brown hair, one twin tail undone, but still surging about the field like an avenging angel.

He remembers seeing her only once afterward. Her coat hanging open, shirt torn, hands shaking slightly where she gripped her lance, her shield fractured. He remembers hearing the officer yelling at her for breaking formation, as she stood stoically without either guilt or defiance. And he remembers running towards her, breaking out of his mothers grip, to tug on her jacket. Her pale violet eyes, dropping down to him, and her lips parting. His vision of her blurred from the tears.

“ _ Thank you,” _ he cried.  _ “Thank you for saving us.” _

And he remembers her smile, as she got down on one knee to his level, and put a hand on his head.

“ _ Keep going,” _ she'd whispered.  _ “I fought so that all of you could keep going. So don't ever stop. _ ”

Yuya blinks away the memory, realizing that he'd begun to cry. He quickly wiped away the tears.

“I joined so that I could be more like her,” he says. “So that...even just one person. So that I could save even just one person.”

Akaba doesn't respond, and when Yuya chances a glance at him, he's surprised to see him staring off into the distance, seemingly seeing nothing.

“Sorry,” Yuya says. “I'm sure that sounded...maybe a bad reason.”

Akaba comes out of whatever trance he's been in, and he shakes his head. To Yuya's surprise, he puts a hand on Yuya's shoulder, and squeezes very lightly.

“Not at all,” he says. “You are very noble, Sakaki.”

Another faint smile crosses his lips.

“I hope you'll hold onto that, after this.”

He is the first person since Yuya got here to look him straight in the eyes like that – like he isn't a joke. Yuya ducks his head, and blushes.

“Thank you,” he says. When Akaba's hand slips away, Yuya glances up at him again. “You can call me Yuya, if you'd like.”

* * *

“I don't understand why you have to go in alone.”

Kurosaki stalks after Reiji as Reiji makes his way down to the tunnel. Yuya's ship has been stabilized and drawn in, and they'll wind the connecting tube out the rest of the way. Reiji will go down that tunnel, and speak with him.

“Because if I go in with a whole contingent, he'll panic,” Reiji says.

“Take a blaster with you,” Kurosaki snaps, trying to push one at him. Reiji pushes it away, shaking his head.

“Again. It will only frighten him. I must speak with him where he doesn't feel threatened.”

“I don't get why you're doing this!”

They reach the door, and Reiji pauses, turning to look Kurosaki in the eyes. Kurosaki always looks angry, but he looks even more so now.

“You wouldn't do this for anyone else,” Kurosaki says. “Why is this kid any different? Because you met him  _ once _ ?”

Reiji hesitates. He turns the question over in his mind. Why  _ is _ he getting so worked up about this? Is it because he was fooled by Yuya's charm? Is he losing his mettle?

Or is it, perhaps, because Yuya was there at the last battle Akaba Ray ever survived?

Reiji inhales.

“I knew him only a short time, but I did see something in him, Major Kurosaki,” Reiji says slowly, evenly. “Something that I do not believe should be dismissed.”

“He stole tech and data and you want to talk to him civil? We could get court-martialed for this, you know, along with you.”

Reiji holds Kurosaki's gaze.

“Did you think, for a moment, Major, about  _ what _ Yuya may have stolen? And why the military is so at ease with it being destroyed?”

This takes Kurosaki aback, and his lips part. He furrows his brow.

“What are you saying?” he says slowly. “You're saying something that I never thought Admiral Akaba was going to say.”

Reiji clenches his jaw. Kurosaki has never been...completely silent on his views about military secrecy. It's one of the reasons that Reiji's ship is the only one where Kurosaki has managed to stay on for as long as he has. In fact, all of Reiji's crew, it seems, are the misfits – the ones that no one else thought were possible to corral or redeem. Kurosaki with his hundreds of infractions for fighting with other officers and demanding to know more about the missions they were sent on. Selena's tendency to shoot out of formation in order to cover civilians. Tsukikage and Hikage's both being seemingly unable to fight without the other within comms reach. Gongenzaka and his refusal to wield a blaster due to personal reasons he would not disclose. The entire fact that Dennis had once been selling intel to the enemy, and may possibly be looking for an excuse to do it again. That wasn't even counting Sawatari's stunning incompetence in eighty percent of encounters – only showing his true mettle when backed against a far corner, and never exactly when you needed him to.

If any crew in the universe should be suspicious of the orders they'd received, it was this one.

“You think this is a cover up,” Kurosaki says.

“I will make no such assumptions,” Reiji says, turning towards the door and keying in the code to open it. “Only that I wish to gain information  _ before _ making assumptions.”

Kurosaki does not argue, and does not stop him this time. The doors slide shut behind him, and Reiji turns to the dark corridor. The walk to where it attaches to Yuya's ship ends all too quickly. He hardly has time to formulate what he is going to say.

The door opens before he can touch it, and Yuya is already there, a blaster trained on him. Reiji raises both hands up, noting the way Yuya's eyes widen and his lips part to see him.

“Admiral Akaba?” Yuya says, soft, hoarse, as though he hasn't spoken aloud for a while.

“Ensign Sakaki,” Reiji says in return.

For a moment, they only stare at each other.

“Why didn't you shoot me down?” Yuya asks.

“I want to know what's going on. This doesn't seem like a move you would have made, from what little time I knew you. I want to know why I'm shooting someone down.”

Yuya's eyes flick past Reiji, and then back down the corridor.

“Are you trying to distract me?” Yuya asks. “Have someone come in on the other side?”

“And do what, do you think?” Reiji asks. “Our orders are to kill you, not capture you. Unless you think I might be putting myself in range of a missile.”

Yuya bites his lip, face pale. He's shaking, and he looks...smaller than he did. His hair is mussed, his face is sweaty, and his uniform is half undone. He's been on the run for only a handful of days, but he looks exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes indicating little sleep.

“What do you want?” Yuya says.

“To know the truth.”

Yuya presses his lips together.

“You can't possibly expect me to believe you don't already know.”

Reiji frowns, brow furrowing. His hands slip a little down to his sides, and Yuya tenses, tightening his grip on the trigger. Reiji raises his hands back up again.

“I quite honestly haven't the slightest idea what's happening,” Reiji says.

“Don't play dumb,” Yuya says, voice cracking. “You're so high up in command, Akaba, and your dad is the High Admiral – you can't possibly not know.”

“I  _ don't  _ know,” Reiji says again, more firmly. “My father and I share nothing more than a job description and a blood tie.”

Yuya is starting to hyperventilate now, shaking slightly.

“Please,” he says. “I liked you, Admiral. I don't...I don't want to shoot you. You seemed like a good person. I don't want to shoot you.”

“You don't have to.”

“Then just let me go, and you'll never hear from me again, I promise.”

“I can't do that.”

Yuya smiles, but it's wry, and there are tears in his eyes.

“That's why I can't trust you.”

His finger twitches against the trigger. Reiji tenses.

_ No! _

The word seems to ring through Reiji's head, and Yuya's eyes widen as though he's heard it too. Yuya's head whips around towards the corridor. Reiji's eyes follow.

He exhales.

Why is there a child on Yuya's ship?

The girl can't be more than ten, eleven. She's so small, so bony, the medical dress she wears seems to hang off of her like her body is a coat rack. Matted violet hair tangles against her back and over her shoulders, big blue eyes so huge and wide it's like they can stare into his soul. Her hands tremble, and her legs shake as though it's hard for her to hold herself up when she stumbles forward.

“Reira,” Yuya gasps. “I told you to  _ hide _ ...”

Reiji puts a hand over his mouth, his body slackening in horror as he sees the rest of her. Sees the collar strapped around her neck, with holes for plugs, and the scars all down her arms. Sees the glowing, pulsing teal battery-like apparatus that seems to be inset in her chest. A soft gag releases from his throat. What...what's happened to this child?

Yuya's eyes whip back to face Reiji at his sound. For a moment, they only stare at each other. And then Yuya's face breaks. His arms drop to his sides.

“Oh, fuck,” he says. “You really didn't know, did you?”

Reiji swallows back bile. Is – is this  _ child _ the stolen tech? If they had shot Yuya out of the sky, they would have –

“What's been done to her?” he manages to gasp out.

Yuya bites his lip, eyes filling with tears.

“They were torturing her,” he says. “They were torturing all of them but – but she was the only one I could...”

He shakes his head, and with shaky hands, he lifts his blaster again.

“Please,” he says. “Just let us go.”

Reiji shakes his head slowly, eyes elsewhere, his brain working over time trying to figure out what this means.

“Akaba, I – I  _ will _ shoot you,” Yuya begs, voice cracking.

“If you do, my crew will shoot you down,” Reiji says. “If I let you go, you'll be hunted, and  _ both _ of you will simply be shot down out of the air.”

“Then what do you want me to do? Turn myself in?” Yuya gasps, eyes filling with tears. “They'll only execute me and take her back to be tortured! And if you didn't already know about the project, they'll definitely never listen to you to shut it down – ”

Reiji holds up a hand for stillness, and is somewhat surprised when Yuya obeys. His eyes slide back to the child, the girl with her hands clasped against her chest and her whole body shaking – her eyes meeting his with the desperation of a wounded animal.

“You will be shot down immediately without a chance to explain, or blow the whistle on whatever is happening,” Reiji says. “Unless...you have a high profile hostage on board.”

Yuya's eyes widen. His jaw slackens, and his arms fall to his sides.

“You're not serious.”

Reiji moves his eyes back to Yuya's, and holds his gaze.

“I'm completely serious.”

* * *

Despite Yuya’s obvious exhaustion and panic, he’s an excellent actor once he’s given a role to play.  His voice doesn’t shake at all after he blows up the connecting tube with Reiji’s instructions, breaking the junker off of the imperial ship and releasing it to zoom off, and informing the crew that he has taken their commander hostage and if they care for his safety, they won’t try shooting or following.

The moment the intercom is shut off, and they’re far enough away that even Reiji’s top of the line imperial cruiser won’t be able to catch up on them again, Yuya’s role drops, and he slides back into his chair, exhausted.

Reiji steps forward — now that the plan has actually happened, he feels a little weak kneed himself.  He’s made a wild, impulsive decision — it’s not like him at all. He is determined to wring the whole story out of Yuya now, no matter how tired Yuya is.

Before Reiji can say a word, however, the girl — Reira, Yuya called her — leaps in between them, arms outstretched.  She shakes slightly, but she doesn’t drop Reiji’s gaze.

_ Don’t hurt him _ .

Reiji’s lips part at the impression of a voice in his head, and Yuya sits up as though he’s heard it too — just like before.

“He’s not going to hurt me,” Yuya says soothingly, stroking her hair.

Reira eyes Reiji suspiciously.  But she backs away, sliding back into Yuya’s lap, and he pulls her up there, holding her lightly as though he’s afraid of breaking her. 

“I assure you, I am not going to hurt you now that I have committed treason with you,” Reiji says.  “I only want to know everything, now that I’ve thrown my lot in with you.”

Reiji slides into the copilot’s seat and folds his hands on his lap, waiting expectantly.

Yuya looks at Reira, and Reira looks at him.  For a moment, it’s as though they share some secret conversation.  Then Reira slides off of Yuya’s lap, and disappears into the hall, closing the door behind her.

“She doesn’t want to have to listen,” Yuya explains.  “She doesn’t want to...deal with remembering.”

Reiji nods, slowly, almost afraid of what he’s going to hear.

Yuya sighs, and leans forward with his elbows on his knees.

“It was after you dropped my contingent off,” he says.  “We were assigned to a security detail on a laboratory. Nothing high-level, just checking the IDs of everyone who came in and out at the security box.”

Reiji nods.  It’s a normal enough first job for a fresh ensign, straight out of Academia.

“There was this one researcher who I saw a lot because she came and left during my shift,” Yuya continues.  “She was...nice. And kind of cute. She reminded me a lot of my best friend, Yuzu, back home — Yuzu’s a researcher too, you know?  She’s studying to become a biologist to help preserve the Outer Rings. She has the same drive and curiosity...and the same cheer.”

Yuya bit his lip, starting to shake slightly.

“Anyway.  I got pretty close to this researcher — Grace, her name was.  Grace Tyler. We went out for coffee a few times.”

That was definitely against any workplace dating ethics that Reiji had ever known, but that clearly wasn’t the issue here.

“One day...well, one day, she wanted to show me what she’d been working on.  So she let me into the lab after my shift.”

Yuya inhales, and closes his eyes.

“That’s...when it all happened.”

* * *

“What’s this one?” Yuya asks, pointing — but not touching — at a strange, twisty looking staff.

Grace lights up, giggling as she grabs it and held it up.  She twirls it once, and Yuya gasps as a rain of electrical sparks flew out of it, radiating out into a brief, shimmering shield.

“Like it?” she says, giggling at his awed expression.  “It’s a portable forcefield. A much stronger and wider one than the arm shields they were using back in the day.  More coverage. And it doesn’t let thin-grade lasers through!”

“Whoa,” Yuya says, eyes widening.  “That definitely looks useful.”

“I did the schematics for it!” Grace says proudly.  She spins it once more, and the shield disappears. She frowns as she sets it down, though.  “They want me to redo it. Apparently making their soldiers spin a baton around to have a shield is ‘too frivolous.’”

Yuya can’t help but laugh.

“I guess it would be pretty funny to see,” he says.  “But not everyone can spin so gracefully.”

Grace beams at him, eyes lighting up as she elbows him in the side.

“Oh?   _ Grace _ fully?  Are you making puns, now?”

“I might be,” Yuya says, winking at her.

Grace giggles again.  She starts walking along the side of her workbench, looking for something else interesting to show him.  Yuya follows after her, glancing across the piles of blueprints and glowing screens and tools he has no name for.  

He’s about to ask about a schematic for a blaster when he hears the screaming.

His hand falls to his blaster, eyes widening as he spins around towards the sound.  It seems to be coming from everywhere at once — or from inside of his own brain, like a ghost shrieking inside his skin.  He can’t place where it’s coming from, or who the person is that’s screaming. Grace barely reacts, though, flipping through her binders.  Yuya swings his head towards her. Does she not hear it??

“What is that?? Is someone in trouble?  Do you hear that?”

“Hm?  Oh, that?”

She looks up.  After a moment, the screaming fades.  It had...it had been so  _ loud _ ...as though it were coming from the next cubicle over.

“Don’t worry, darling, it’s nothing.”

“It didn’t sound like nothing...”

She shrugs.

“It’s only the telekinesis division,” she said.  “They’re very noisy.”

Then she bites her lip, furrowing her brow.

“Oh dear.  I’m not supposed to talk about them. Pretend you didn’t hear that, all right, darling?”

Telekinesis division?  Yuya’s head spins. Questions poise to tumble from his lips in a rush, but Grace has that look on her face, the one she gets when she almost grazes over classified information in conversation, and he knows he can’t ask.  

He tries to be excited about everything Grace shows him, but he can’t get the screaming out of his head.  Grace leaves him at her workbench for a moment to go to the bathroom, and Yuya stands alone in a dim, cluttered cubicle in a mostly empty laboratory, hoping that he won’t get in trouble if someone sees him here.

A scream rips through him again.  Yuya’s breath catches in his throat and he almost chokes on it.  He feels it as though it’s surging down to the very core of his being, as though it’s coming from inside of himself, chilling him from the inside out.  His whole body begins to shake, and his mouth goes dry.

And then the screaming changes.  It turns into a thin, shrieking keen that seems to stab through his head and wriggle around inside him.  His knees shake — it feels as though the scream is becoming a part of him, digging into his skull and searching for something.

_ HELP!!!! _

The voice punches through his head as though he’s been physically struck, and the images come after it.  His eyes glaze over from the barrage that come from somewhere outside of him, but projected  _ into _ him — he sees a series of glowing white pods, each with a shadow inside it.  He sees a pair of white coated scientists seizing a screaming, kicking shadow out of one of the pods.  He sees a haggard, sunken eyed child strapped to a table, trembling and crying as electricity pumps through the electrodes attached to his temples.  He sees a splatter of blood across the floor, a twitching hand as doctors with masks make careful incisions into the skin of a child who is very much awake and aware.

And then they stop — cut off, like someone’s pulled the line on a phone and disconnected the line.

Yuya doesn’t think.  He only runs.

He can follow the echo of the screams as though it’s a scent wafting down the hallway.  He dodges through dark cubicles until he reaches a door. It’s not locked, despite the card key reader, and he pushes through, running down the long narrow corridor.  A thin light appears at the end of the hallway, peering through the gaps in a door up ahead. Yuya nearly crashes into it at the speed he’s going, but he manages to get ahold of himself just in time, and pulls to a stop, breathing hard.  Only now does it hit him that he’s breaking so many rules and if anyone finds him down here, he’s probably going to lose his job at best or something else so much worse, or Grace is going to worry or get in trouble and why is he  _ doing _ this?

He nearly backs away from the door when he hears the scream — this time, it’s out loud, and not inside his head.  He stops thinking, and he yanks the door open.

Light pours over his face, causing him to throw a hand over his eyes and squint through the blinding glimmer.  He bites back a cry at how bright it is compared to the dark offices and the even darker hallway — yet, his eyes adjust faster than he expects.  This hall is ablaze with a clinical white light, windows running along each wall. He moves to the one on his left, first, peering down. His stomach turns.

They’re  _ children _ .  There must be at least twenty of them, all between the ages of five and twelve, all locked inside of the same glowing white pods he saw in his mind.  One of them is flailing and clearly screaming inside the pod, electrodes attached to their temples as they pound their little fists against the glass — the others all appear to be in varying states of unconsciousness.  He spins to the other window, running across the hall and pressing his palms against it. He nearly throws up. There’s only one child down in this room, but there are people in white coats surrounding her where she’s strapped onto the table.  A terrifying looking drill is poised over her head, and there are all sorts of terrible implements and technological bits on the tables surrounding her.

He flinches at the sound of footsteps in the hall beside him, whipping around to find Grace giving him a small, sad smile.

“Darling,” she says, crossing over to him and putting her hands on his shoulders.  “You’re not supposed to be in here, you naughty boy.”

“What — what are they doing to them?” Yuya gasps.  “They’re...they’re hurting them.”

Below him, he hears the girl on the table screaming again.  Grace smiles at him again, cupping his face in her hands.

“Oh, darling, don’t be like that,” she said.  “This is important work they’re doing.”

Yuya can’t disguise his horror, ripping himself out of her hands.

“They’re kids!”

Grace blinks, as though this distinction makes no sense to her.  She only sighs, and holds her hand out towards him.

“They haven’t noticed you yet, darling.  We can be out of here in a moment, and no one has to know that you know anything.  Go back to being your darling, cheerful self, and pretend you never saw this.”

He searches her eyes, mouth wide, trying to decide if he’s actually hearing this.  Grace is...acting as though this is  _ okay _ . 

He never once looks, or reaches for her hand.  He only feels a horrible, swirling pit in his stomach as he remembers every day she walked past him, smiling and joking with him — not just her, but everyone who passed through his security box, going in with smiles on their faces to...to do this.

Grace’s eyes widen and she scrambles backwards when Yuya draws his blaster, but he doesn’t point it at her.  He aims at the window and fires.

* * *

Yuya can see that all of the color has drained out of Akaba’s face as Yuya keeps talking.

“I got lucky, somehow.  The windows weren’t reinforced.”

He feels his tongue like lead in his mouth, speaking only on autopilot.

“I was able to break through, and I nearly broke my leg dropping in.  None of the scientists were armed, and the only security was on the other side of the door.  I was  _ really _ lucky.”

He shakes his head.

“I cut Reira off the table, grabbed her, and ran.  I wanted to go back for the others but...there was no time.”

He clenched his hands into his lap, trying not to cry as he thought about those other scared, trapped faces, the ones he couldn’t save.  Tears fall against his hands and he realizes that he is already crying again.

He’s surprised when another hand slides on top of his, and looks up to see Akaba leaning towards him.  His face is still pale, but his violet eyes are calm, and remarkably close. Yuya suddenly remembers just how beautiful Akaba’s eyes are up this close.

“You did admirably,” he says, in a soft, gentle voice.  He squeezes Yuya’s hand briefly before letting go. “And we are going to put a stop to this.”

Yuya’s mouth opens involuntarily.

“We...we are?”

Akaba’s lips twitch into a very small smile.  He stands, smoothing out the threads of his epaulettes.

“One way or another, Sakaki, you have gotten me involved,” he says.  “And when I get involved with things, they get finished.”

Yuya can only stare at him for a moment, eyes wide.  And then a choked laugh escapes him.

“I cannot believe this,” he says, shaking his head.  “If you told me a month ago I’d be on the run from the military with  _ Akaba Reiji _ on my side...I don’t think I would have believed you.”

Akaba actually chuckled softly.

“Then perhaps you ought to start believing in more uncommon things.”

* * *

Reiji leans over the old database, rubbing his chin.  His coat lays across the back of the chair, his dress shirt undone in a casual fashion he hasn’t worn in years.  But it’s warm in this ship without a proper cooling unit, so he doesn’t bother with decorum. Anyway, he’s a hostage — or a fugitive, whichever makes more sense.

He pushes his bangs back, frowning as he flicks through the holographic screen.  The database on this decommissioned ship hasn’t been updated for a while, and without connecting to the grid, they can’t update the information.  Connecting to the grid, however, means they can be found — it’s the reason Yuya stole a  _ decommissioned _ ship in the first place.  Reiji will have to make do with what he has.

The door to the little lounge opens, and he glances up.  Yuya appears in the door with two cups of steaming tea — he stops, however, eyes widening.  Reiji blinks. He looks behind him for a moment, even though he knows there is only wall there, wondering what Yuya is looking at.

When Yuya lets out a little snort, he looks back to see Yuya blushing, but with a goofy grin over his lips.

“I was looking at  _ you _ ,” he says, handing the tea over.

“I fail to see what causes such surprise,” Reiji says, accepting it.

“ _ You _ .  With your....your shirt undone like that.”

Yuya actually blushes, looking away, and Reiji glances down at himself.  He’s only undone two buttons.

“It’s warm,” he says, looking back up.

“I...I  _ know _ ,” Yuya splutters.  “I just...always took you for the straight-laced type.”

Finally Reiji gets it.  A faint smile pulls at his lips.

“You would be disappointed to hear what others in the navy have to say about me then,” he says.  He cups his tea in one hand and flicks through the database with his other finger. For a moment, the pair sit in silence.  Reiji swirls his tea, considering the database, and the quiet. He and Yuya have been traveling for a few days together, now, but aside from their first conversation, most of their conversation has been limited — constrained to possible places to go to, possible strategies for freeing the other imprisoned children, generic talk about food and supplies that are left on this ship and where they can go to safely resupply.

Reiji’s head spins considering all of their options — or lack of them.  They want to save the children, that much he is sure of. He cannot....he  _ cannot _ allow this to continue.  Not with the proof of the corruption he has always known was there finally in his grasp.  

The only question is what to  _ do  _ with that.

He shakes his head, considering the notes he’s made on the ship log.  They can find an old radio tower and use it to transmit the data Yuya has stolen to the United Empire, reveal the truth of the navy’s corruption and let society take it from there.  But the navy has more than enough power to shut down a broadcast and erase the evidence, or shut down any potential uprising.

They can go to Synchron, long-standing enemies of the Imperial Navy, and sell the information to them.  Stir up a conflict that could give them the chance to break down the navy’s stranglehold on the universe and their power over the imprisoned children and who knew how many others harmed.  But Synchron isn’t necessarily to be trusted either, and they could be trading one tyrant for another.

They can go to Heartland and seek allies among the independence movement, reveal to them the depth of the navy’s human rights violations and bring up a massive political upheaval that might cause a total tear down of the structure.  But Heartland, for all its might, isn’t yet strong enough to actually push for their own independence — much less to tear down a power structure hundreds of years old.

And no matter what decision they made, it would likely always lead to yet another bloody, galaxy-wide war.

“You’re thinking hard,” Yuya says over the top of his glass.

Reiji sighs, putting his elbow on the table and pushing his hand through his hair.

“I’m afraid I have far less ideas that I thought when I first decided to join you,” he says.

“Do you...regret it?”

Reiji glances up, and finds Yuya looking away from him.  He clutches his cup with both hands.

“I could....drop you off on a planet or something.  You could say that I kidnapped you but you escaped.”

Reiji scoffs softly.

“Absolutely not,” he says.  “I meant it when I decided to join you, Yuya.”

He puts down his tea and steeples his fingers beneath his nose, considering the outdated information before him.  A breath escapes his lips.

“Yuya,” he says.  “I’ve known for a long time that the navy was hiding many things — and many harms.  It’s why I joined.”

Yuya shoots him a quick, surprised look.  Reiji has never said this before. He’s never said any of it before, none of it aloud — not even to his crew members, not even to the people he trusted to have his back for when he made his eventual turn on the navy.  He’s barely even let himself think about it in all the years he’s fought to become an Admiral. Hidden it, deep down, where no one would find it, no one would suspect him.

“When I was a child,” he says, his eyes unfocusing, “my sister was in the navy, as well.”

Yuya says nothing, as though the silence is a spell he’s afraid to break.

“She was everything I wanted to be.  She was...strong. She fought for those who needed her — even when it got her into trouble.”

A soft smile grows over his face.  Had it been so long, since he’d even dared to think about her?

“She was often in conflict with my father, as she made him look poorly,” he says with a soft laugh.  “But she never backed down. She broke formation to protect people. She put their lives ahead of anything else.  She spoke out against human rights violations, testified against other soldiers in court martials, did everything she could to be there for those who truly needed her.”

Reiji’s smile fades.  His hands slid down to the table, cupping around his tea.  He stares into the darkness of the liquid, lips tight.

“And one day, she did not come home,” he says.  “I always knew it was suspicious. She had always told me, in secret, that she knew the navy was hiding more than it was telling.  And she would tell me her plans to tear it down.”

Yuya’s breath catches.  Reiji doesn’t have to look at him to know that Yuya has already made the connection.  Yuya already has guessed — that the woman who saved his and his family’s lives is the sister Reiji speaks of.

“She...she died?” Yuya says, his throat choked.

Reiji looks down.

“I believe she was likely assassinated,” he says.  “She got too close to truths. Killed in the heat of battle by her own comrades, likely, to hide the truth of it.  The ballistics report on her death was inconclusive, but far too convenient.”

He looks up at Yuya then, holding his gaze.

“I played the role of the perfect soldier for many years, hoping to get close to those truths — and to finally finish what my sister started.”

Yuya’s lips are parted, and his eyes are wider.  He puts down his tea before the shake in his hands gets to him.

“I had...no idea.”

Reiji smiles.  He hears the door crack open, and sees the sliver of Reira’s eye staring at him.  He can almost feel her staring straight into his mind — and he wonders, perhaps, if that’s why Reira shouted at Yuya not to shoot him, when they had first confronted each other.  Perhaps Reira had known his intentions. Perhaps she still does.

“Don’t worry,” Reiji says.  “Until now, no one else ever had, either.”

* * *

Akaba is asleep when Yuya comes back from the pilot’s seat after readjusting their coordinates.  Yuya is almost surprised to find him sprawled out on the couch in the lounge, head lolling over — he still feels surprised to see the former admiral being so casual.  He’s more surprised, however, to find Reira sitting next right to him, eating her dried sandwich.

“Hey,” Yuya says, putting down his jacket.  “You doing all right?”

Reira looks up, chewing.  She swallows before answering, even though she doesn’t need to use her mouth to speak.

_ I like him. _

Yuya smiles, sitting down across from her.

“Yeah?”

Reira nods.

_ He’s....nice. _

The word echoes in his head, almost with some kind of wonder.  As though ‘nice’ isn’t a thing she knows quite how to understand.

Yuya smiles again, leaning forward on his elbows.  Akaba looks surprisingly peaceful, and yet quite casual, asleep with his mouth hanging open.  He can’t help but smile. If someone had told him he’d be on this crazy adventure with someone like Akaba Reiji...he never would have believed it.

“Yeah,” he says softly.  “I think so too.”

* * *

There aren’t many places to sleep on the ship.  It wasn’t made for long voyages like this. And there’s only so much time one can spend in the pilot’s seat when the ship does most of the flying itself.

Reira sleeps sprawled over the couch, her head in Yuya’s lap, Yuya’s head lolled backwards, but it’s hard to sleep that way.  He lifts his head when the door opens, revealing Reiji. His eyes and glasses glow softly in the light. At first, it’s obvious Reiji doesn’t notice Yuya’s awake.  He just walks slowly over to the only other seat and slumps into it. 

He looks...tired, Yuya thinks.  How hard must it have been, to spend his whole life pretending to be someone he wasn’t in order to fulfill the dream of someone else?  Reiji slumps forward, elbows on his knees, head down. Yuya can hear him breathing in the quiet — should he let him know that he’s awake?  Reira stirs slightly in his lap, sliding off of him as she curls up in her sleep into a tiny ball.

Reiji lets out a deep, heavy sigh.  Yuya hears...a choke in it. As though...there are tears.  He sounds so young. It only now occurs to him that Reiji is only a few years older than him.  Reiji...when did Yuya start thinking of him by his first name?

“I can figure this out,” Reiji mutters to himself.  “I can...I can come up with a solution. There has to be...a plan...”

He mumbles, shaking his head and rubbing his hand over his mouth.

“Ray...” he mutters.  “I’m...I’m so sorry. This wasn’t the way I planned to fix everything.”

Yuya’s heart clenches.  Before he can think better of it, he whispers. 

“Reiji...?”

Reiji startles, eyes wide as he sits up.  In the dark, they stare at each other, lips parted.  It’s too dark to tell, but Yuya almost imagines he sees a light blush run over the other man’s face, and feels his own cheeks heat as well. He...he called Reiji by his first name.  What was he thinking?

Reiji coughs, covering his mouth with his fist.

“I’m sorry,” he says.  “Did I wake you?”

Yuya shakes his head.

“Sorry.  I was already awake.”

Reiji looks down.  He tenses slightly.  Yuya leans forward.

“You...you don’t have to solve this all by yourself, you know,” he whispers, voice low so as not to wake Reira.

Reiji slowly, quietly looks up at him.  Yuya stands, walking across to sit gingerly next to him on the other couch.  For a moment, the two of them sit together in silence, just watching Reira, curled up and sleeping peacefully for once.

“I mean...I’m here too,” he says.  “And I might not be as strategic as you but...I can help.  If you’ll let me.”

Reiji does not respond.  Then his shoulders slump forward.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.  “I’m...I’m not used to this.”

Yuya feels his heart thumping in his chest.  In the dark, it feels as though they’re floating out in the universe itself.  Like it’s just them, alone and adrift in the universe.

“Not used to what?  I thought you were good at this strategy and planning stuff,” Yuya says in a joking tone.

Reiji shakes his head, slumping forward a little bit more, so that he’s almost bent over his knees.

“Not that,” he says.  “I’m not used to....not pretending.”

Yuya’s breath catches.  For a moment, they sit in silence again, the quiet stretching the distance between them.

Yuya closes it, one inch at a time, until his hand is on Reiji’s back.  He starts to rub soothingly, the way his mother would after a nightmare when he was a child.

“You’re tired,” he says.  “This is what happens when you push yourself for too long.”

Reiji lets out a choked laugh.

“I pushed myself for my entire life.  I don’t...I don’t know who I am, really.”

He runs a hand over his face again, and sits up.  Yuya lets his hand slide from his back, and is only half surprised when Reiji’s raises up to meet it as it descends.   Their hands cling together. The only things in the darkness.

“You are the first person I have told anything to,” he says.  “I...I don’t know how to handle this. Someone knowing who I am.  I’ve...I’ve never been real.”

Yuya’s heart is in his throat, now, and he doesn’t know how to handle all of the thoughts in his head.  All he can think about is the quiet, refined admiral he first met, who laughed at his joke and didn’t discipline him like anyone else would have — the kind, gentle person he met in the observation room, who spoke in such longing tones of seeing other worlds.  The boy who became a man because his sister died, and left him the burden of saving the world.

Yuya doesn’t know what he’s doing before he does it.  But he’s leaning across the darkness, closing up the expanse of space between them, and when Reiji’s head tilts towards him, it’s almost like they’re two planets dragged together by gravity as their lips press together.  For only a moment, Yuya thinks he’s made a mistake. But then Reiji’s hand is in his hair, pressing him against him, and in the quiet vacuum of space surrounding them, they breathe in each other more than they have breathed in anything ever before.

When Yuya comes back up for air, head falling against Reiji’s chest, Reiji’s arms snake around him as he gasps for breath.

“I think you were real,” Yuya whispers.  “Beneath everything, I think you were always real.”

He feels a single tear drop into his hair, and he holds Reiji closer.  

“Thank you,” Reiji whispers. 

And it’s all that needs to be said.

* * *

“This is the last place I expected to come back to,” Yuya says, shifting nervously.

It’s been so long since Reiji has seen natural sunlight, and even longer since he has seen such a green planet.  He carefully eases the speeder into the thick trees outside of the remains of Maiami City, the place where the first Struggle took place.  Any god out there willing, their presence here would not start a second Struggle.

Reira shivers and clings to Yuya, and Yuya holds her back, stroking her hair.

“Do you sense anyone?” he asks.

Reira shakes her head.

_ That doesn’t mean anything, _ she says.   _ They had helmets to block us. _

Reiji hates the sound of that, but they are out of options.  They  _ have _ to resupply — they need fuel, food, oxygen, and water — and a rest from the emptiness of space.  The Outer Rings were the closest to them, and they have an environment that supports life naturally.  That means they can find most of what they need in the wilds, without having to risk going into a city.  Yuya’s face is likely plastered on every wanted post in the entire galaxy — and while this may be home for him, now is not the time to find out which of his neighbors are willing to sell him out.

“You’ll need to navigate,” Reiji says, bringing the ship all the way down and gently shutting it down.  “I’m not familiar with the area or what is safe to harvest.”

“There’s some stuff we can use to set some traps and catch some game that I can preserve for a while,” Yuya says.  “It’ll take us a few days of waiting, though.”

“Likely, that will be how much we need to tap into this gas deposit for refueling anyway.”

Reiji chafes at the thought, as he presses a few buttons to send a tube out of the ship to burrow into the ground and seek natural sources of fuel.  Staying in one place for so long is dangerous. But they have no options.

_ I’m going with Yuya _ , says Reira, and there’s a tone in her voice that says there will be no arguments.  Reiji can’t help but smile — she’s gotten more confident lately.

“It’s not very safe,” he says, spinning around in his seat and rising to his feet.  “But...you’ve been cooped up here long enough.”

Reira’s eyes light up.  Reiji jumps a little when she throws her arms around his knees, almost sending him toppling over.  Yuya shoots Reiji a smile, and then takes Reira’s hand and leads her towards the back of the ship. Before he disappears, however, he pauses.  And he reaches a hand out for Reiji.

He knows he should stay on the ship.  But he takes Yuya’s hand, and lets himself be lifted to his feet.

“Come on,” Yuya says.  “Do....don’t you want to see it?”

There’s such softness, such uncertainty in his voice, that it gives Reiji pause.  As though he’s afraid Reiji won’t like it. Reiji smiles at him, and squeezes his hand.

“I believe...that I’d like that.”

Reiji lets Yuya lead him and Reira to the back of the ship, and it feels like it takes agonizingly long for the ramp to lower, for the air to finally burst in as he takes in his first breath of non-filtered oxygen in weeks.  It’s...cool, he realizes. But not cold. A gentle breeze wafts in, bringing with it the scent of flowers. He hasn’t smelled flowers in...in years, maybe.

He and Reira both stand with wide eyes and slackened jaws, while Yuya grins madly between them, when the forests of the Outer Ring meet them.

Reiji has never seen a tree that wasn’t grown in a pot.  They’re....they’re  _ massive.  _ Just one of them is almost as tall as his imperial cruiser.  And they’re so  _ green _ .  There is something growing on their bark, something soft and green, and there’s a thick carpet of leaves on the ground that don’t crunch, but rather simply press down beneath his feet as they slowly step down from the ramp, Yuya leading the two staring tagalongs onto the solid ground.

“What’s that sound?” Reiji breathes, as he hears something begin to chirp in the distance.

Yuya’s smile is dazzling.

“Birds,” he said.

The Outer Ring is no primitive planet, Reiji thinks.  Perhaps it is undeveloped, without all of the luxuries and comforts of the Capitol.  But is  _ beautiful _ .  And it is ancient in a way he cannot possibly comprehend.

He breathes in deep, surprised at the scents that come with the air, and how clear it tastes despite that.  The breeze wafts about them. Slowly, cautiously, Reira takes a step away from Yuya, hand sliding out of his.  She nervously wanders towards a sprout of small, blue flowers, bouncing in the breeze where they nestle between a tree’s roots.  She pokes one experimentally, and her eyes widen.

_ They’re soft _ !

She whirls to face them, her face alight with more joy and excitement than Reiji has ever seen out of the quiet, scared girl.  Yuya’s hand squeezes Reiji’s involuntarily, and Reiji squeezes back.

Perhaps his worry is misplaced.  Perhaps no one followed them this far out in the galaxy.  Perhaps, even...his mind wanders as he looks up into the faraway canopy of leaves, sunlight dappling through them.  Perhaps...they can find a way to stay. Find a life out here, in the Outer Rings. Maybe they don’t need to save the galaxy — they can disappear.  Live a quiet, hidden life. They can be happy. Reira can be happy and free. She can live in a world like this, with no one hurting her, no one chasing her.

For the first time in his life that he can remember, thinking about a possible future makes him feel warm.  For the first time in his entire life, he wants something — something that wasn’t laid out for him. Something that he didn’t choose to shoulder.  And he aches from the wanting.

“Yuya,” he whispers.  

Yuya’s eyes widen, and he shivers slightly — Reiji realizes that this is the first time...the first time he’s said Yuya’s first name aloud.

“Yeah?”

Reiji doesn’t get a chance to say it.  Because Reira suddenly shoots straight up, her face going white, and she opens her mouth and screams.

Reiji sees the blaster poking out of the invisibility shield just in time.  He yells, shoving Yuya to the ground before it fires. With Yuya down, Reiji bolts for Reira, trying to grab hold of her.

He isn’t fast enough.  Hands shoot out of the open air, snatching him by the arms, forcing him down to his knees and shoving his head forward.  He hears Reira screaming, with her lungs and with her mind, and the sound rips through him as he struggles and yells, trying to see her.

“Reira!  Reira!”

“Stop it!” Yuya screams.  “Don’t touch her!! Leave her alone!!”

Reiji throws his head back against the hands holding him, just barely managing to get a glimpse of Reira — her face pale, her body completely frozen, as two soldiers with tranquilizer guns corner her against the tree that just a moment ago was making her smile so large.

“Stop!” he shouts.  “Stop, you’re frightening her!”

“Shut up,” one of the soldiers holding him snarls, shoving his head back down.  “ _ Traitor _ .”

Reiji tries to twist himself free, but his captors have him caught firmly.

“How unfortunate, Admiral Akaba,” comes the voice, and Reiji’s stomach twists.  He knows that voice — of all the people to catch them...

Admiral Roget gives him a very terrible smile as he comes into view.  Perfect. Just exactly who Reiji wanted to see. Reiji grits his teeth and tries to look calm.

“All this time, your crew has been so worried,” he says, eyes flicking back over his shoulder.  “Only to join me in securing your rescue and finding...that you’ve been consorting with the enemy this entire time.”

Reiji’s heart drops into his stomach.  Involuntarily, his eyes flick to where Roget was looking.  His heart sinks when he sees them.

It’s his crew — all of them.  Selena is holds her blaster loosely at her side, eyes flicking back and forth from Reiji and Yuya.  Tsukikage and Hikage are as impassive as ever. Shun looks red in the face, shaking slightly. Gongenzaka’s arms are folded, even now carrying no weapon of his own.  Sawatari just stares with his mouth hanging open, and Dennis looks distant, not looking at anyone or anything.

Roget can’t stop smiling, on the other hand, his lips peeling back in a horrible grin.

“How terrible,” he says.  “After they all trusted you so much.”

Reiji’s mask crumbles in spite of himself.

He’s failed.  He’s failed  _ all  _ of them.  He’s failed his crew.  He’s failed Reira. He’s failed Yuya. He’s failed himself.

He’s failed Ray.

“What?  Nothing to say?” Roget says with a smirk.  “No claims for your innocence?”

Reira lets out the tiniest of cries, and Reiji feels his eyes fill with tears.  His head slumps forward. He’s...lost. Roget laughs softly.

“Very well then.  We’ll save it for your trial,” he says, turning around.  “Secure the subject. We’ll let his crew take their traitorous admiral to the brig themselves.”

He nods at the group — only Selena stirs.  She grits her teeth as she shoves her blaster back into her holster, and takes out a pair of cuffs instead.  Slowly, she approaches. Reiji can’t look her in the eyes. She gets up close to him, inches apart, cuffs hanging from her fingers, eyes fixed on his so that he has to look at her.  She crouches, then, right in front of him. Reiji’s captors make to move his hands so that Selena can cuff him.

“Why didn’t you trust us?”

Her voice comes out so soft, so hissing, that Reiji barely hears it — barely moving her lips, speaking through her teeth.

Reiji’s lips part slightly.  His eyes flicker towards Yuya, who still struggles and screams Reira’s and Reiji’s names over and over again while soldiers try to drag him away to the hidden imperial ship.  His eyes return to Selena. He feels his shoulders slump.

“I was afraid,” he whispers back.

“Of what?”

The soldiers holding Reiji exchange a glance, clearly confused as to why Selena isn’t cuffing him yet.  One of them starts to reach for the cuffs. Selena doesn’t move, eyes still on Reiji’s.

Reiji thinks of Ray.  The sister he barely got to know, who died fighting a war she could never win.  He thinks of Reira, the child who never got a choice on whether or not to fight for the right to live.  And he thinks of Yuya — the boy who didn’t hesitate, who put his life on the line without thinking for a second if it was going to be okay.  Only that it was the right thing to do. And now his life is being destroyed for it.

“Of ruining all of you,” Reiji whispers.

Selena’s eyes narrow.  The soldier’s hands twitch towards her cuffs.

Her fist raises up in the air at her head — and in one breath, several things happen.

Two quick, perfect shots ring out, striking Reiji’s captors in the arms and shoulders, causing them to wrench back with yells of pain.  A second pair of equally perfect shots, silent and deadly, strike the two soldiers holding Yuya, who is dumped to the floor as they stagger back.  The soldiers advancing on Reira suddenly shoot into the air, as Gongenzaka grabs the both of them by the back of the neck and throws them unceremoniously into the woods.  And Selena spins to her feet, drawing her blaster in one motion, and shoots Roget in the back of the head. 

Reiji only stares for a moment, mouth hanging open.

Gongenzaka scoops up Reira, who doesn’t move or breathe.  Kurosaki has Yuya under the arm already, firing blasts backwards at the rest of Roget’s forces while gunfire blazes over their heads.

Selena shoves her blaster into her belt, and grabs Reiji by the arms, shoving him to his feet.

“I hope that dumbass ship of yours can hold more than just three!” she shouts at him.

And only then, does Reiji stir back to life.  He snatches the blaster out of Selena’s holster and fires at an approaching soldier as the two of them fall back.

Step by step, protected every inch of the way by his crew — they make it back into the ship.

“We don’t have enough fuel or supplies!” Yuya gasps, as Kurosaki dumps him to the floor.

“Lucky for you, we came prepared,” Tsukikage says quietly, producing a solar battery from some unknown location and darting off to the pilot’s seat.  Gongenzaka lays Reira gently down in Reiji and Yuya’s laps, and then turns around to yank the door closed behind Dennis and Sawatari, the last to leap in.

“Whew!” Dennis says with a bright smile.  “You certainly know how to make things interesting, Admiral!”

Reiji only gasps for air, Reira clutched in his lap with one arm, and scrabbling for Yuya’s hand with the other.

“You...why did you all...?” he says.

The crew all exchanges a glance.  Then Kurosaki snorts.

“You picked us all for a reason,” he says.  “We just guessed you had a good reason for picking Yuya, this time.”

He glances down at Yuya, who looks back with wide eyes.

“Were we right?”

Yuya glances quickly at Reiji, lips parted and eyes questioning.  Reiji can’t help but break into a smile. He squeezes Yuya’s hand tightly.  Then he smiles at his crew, too, and he sees the surprise in all of their faces — he has never smiled so widely before them before.

“Yes,” he says.  “You were.”

Reira snuggles closer into them, and Reiji runs a soothing hand through her hair.

“You were all always exactly the kind of people I knew you were.”

* * *

“Hey! Those were  _ mine _ !”

“I didn’t see your name on them.”

“They were ON!! MY  _ TRAY!” _

“Sawatari, stop antagonizing Selena.  And don’t hide behind me. I will not defend you.”

“That’s so cold, Gon!”

Yuya laughs as he watches a spoonful of potatoes go flying over the tiny, cramped mess hall.  It feels like only yesterday this room felt almost cavernous from being filled with only the three of them.  Now it practically bursts at the seams from Reiji’s — no,  _ their _ crew members filling up the space.

Reiji looks pained, as though he wanted to call them out for being undisciplined, but was also considering the fact somewhere deep within him that they weren’t a military vessel anymore, and perhaps there was no point in trying to reign them in.  Yuya slides up close to him, pressing his shoulder against his, and after a beat, Reiji’s hand finds his and twines into it.

“Too noisy?” Yuya asks.

Reiji cracks a small smile — but a bigger one than Yuya has ever seen on him.  Before he can answer, the soft touch of Reira’s mind brushes against theirs, and then she’s wriggling up from beneath the table, pushing herself between them and causing them to lose their grip.

_ Pay attention to me, _ she says, petulantly. 

Yuya and Reiji both laugh, and as one, they wrap an arm around her, cradling her between them as the rest of the crew continues to bicker and banter, filling up the old ship with noise and laughter.

“No,” Reiji says finally, in response to Yuya’s unanswered question, his arm sliding around Reira and Yuya at once and holding them close.  “I don’t think it’s too noisy at all.”


End file.
